 Fr. Rico, an Oratorian, describes the memorial services in Lima on the occasion of the death of King Carlos III, as well as the commemorative art work and its Neo-Latin epigraphs. Fray Bernardo Rueda's “Oracion funebre que en las solemnes exequias del Rey nuestro señor don Carlos III” has a sectional title-page and its own pagination.

The folding plate is ofthe funeral monumenterected in the king's memory. It is an extremely well executed, large engraving, signed by Vazquez and dated at Lima, 1789.

NUC and WorldCat locate only two copies in the U.S. Searches of CCPB and the OPAC of the Spanish national library locate three Spanish libraries reporting ownership; COPAC finds no copies in Britain.

The number of “splendid ceremonies” books produced in colonial Peru is small: There is no census but we suspect the number to be around 20.

Other interesting aspects of the work are that it is an important source on the social and artistic life of Lima in the decade following the Tupac Amaru rebellion and that it is from one of Latin America's famous presses of “orphan children.”

 John Carter Brown Library, Catalogue, 1493-1800, III,324; Medina, Lima, 1697; Sabin 73902; Vargas Ugarte, Impresos peruanos, 2546. Contemporary limp vellum with neatly inked title on spine; all edges inked decoratively. Old blurred stamp on front free endpaper, old single numerals very faintly on title-pages. Small tear in margin of plate, not into image. Overall a very good copy, very clean and with wide margins. (34668)

 Fr. Rico, an Oratorian, describes the memorial services in Lima on the occasion of the death of King Carlos III, as well as the commemorative art work and its Latin-language epigraphs. Fray Bernardon Rueda's “Oracion funebre que en las solemnes exequias del Rey nuestro señor don Carlos III” has a sectional title-page and its own pagination; the folding plate is of the funeral monument erected in the king's memory.

Rare: WorldCat locates only two copies in the U.S.

An important source on the social and artistic life of Lima in the decade following the Tupac Amaru rebellion.

 The first edition of Father Ignacio de Paredes's translation of Father Ripalda's Spanish-language catechism into Nahuatl. Both men were Jesuits, but in different centuries and on different continents: Ripalda was born in Spain in 1535 and died in 1618, never having left Europe; Paredes was born in Mexico in 1703 and died there the year this book was published, hailed as one of the most important Nahuatl scholars of the period.

Beristain describes Paredes as being “outstanding in the Mexican language.” His volume was intended for use by missionaries, by parish priests, and by Indians: Indeed, there is aprologue intended to persuade Indians in particular to read and learn this catechism.

The volume is illustrated with woodcut arms on the verso of the second title-page and bears many woodcut initials and tailpieces throughout This copy retains Ortuño's engraved frontispiece (often missing) of St. Francis.

Binding: A very interesting contemporary Mexican sprinkled calf binding, probably by a “provincial” binder. Covers with a single gilt-roll border having a modest corner device in each corner, that tool reused to form a four-part center design on each cover; same gilt-roll used on spine to accent the slightly raised bands and form spine compartments, one of these compartments with a spine-label and one having the covers' corner device gilt-tooled at its center. Board edges also with a gilt-roll design; all edges green. Highly unusual endpapers of a pattern in blue and red resembling images of strings in string theory: This is the first time we have ever seen this pattern.

 Garcia Icazbalceta, Lenguas, 56; Viñaza 341; H. de León-Portilla, Tepuztlahcuilolli, 2286; Palau 269110; Medina, Mexico, 4500; DeBacker-Sommervogel, VI, 210–211; Sabin 71488; Leclerc 2334; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 2891. Binding as above, in good condition; light offsetting from it to early and late leaves. A few small areas of discoloration where candle wax spilled on a page, and a bit of other light toning; p. 135 with “Per Omnia Secula Seculorum” neatly written in bottom margin. Very good. (34611)

 Young Rivas, son of one of the leaders of the first independent government in Venezuela, calls on all Venezuelans to unite, saying “the inhabitants of this city” have overthrown an illegitimate government, have established a “supreme authority,” and are now breathing “the air of Independence.” He points out the remaining provinces are the body of the new nation and that without them Caracas is merely a bodyless head. “Unite or die” is his plea, and by doing so, “[w]e will form a nation that will know how to maintain the honor of the Spanish people and that will make all others respect us.”

The origins of printing in Venezuela are still, at this late date, shrouded in shadows. There remain questions of whether itinerant printers established themselves now and then for short periods of time, printing a form or booklet — and definitely some playing cards — and then moving on. The accepted date for “the beginning” of printing in Venezuela is October, 1808, with the arrival of the press of Gallagher and Lamb and this issuance of the first issue of Andrés Bello’s Gazeta de Caracas.

Very Rare. This broadside was unknown to Medina and is only the 16th item in Pedro Grases chronological list of things printed in Venezuela. In his entry he located only the copies in the Public Record Office (London) and the Archivo de Indias (Seville). Searches of NUC, OCLC, and RLIN fail to find any copy at all. Further, no copies were found when searching the OPACs of the national libraries of Spain, Venezuela, Colombia, France, and England.

 A crisis has caused the Guatemalan national assembly to remove Doctor Pedro
José Antonio Molina Mazariegos as president and appoint Antonio Rivera, a liberal politician.
Rivera assumed the presidency on 9 March 1830, on which day he issued this announcement that
he had assumed the position and calling on the people to remain calm.

Searches of WorldCat, COPAC, CCILA, and METABASE locate no copies. Tthere is no
OPAC at the Biblioteca Nacional de Guatemala to be searched.

 Dated 18 August 1839, five days after Rivera Paz's returning to office. He says
that the people of Guatemala, with the support of Gen. Carrera and his caudillos, have restored
him to his right place in government and that he hopes to bring peace and prosperity to the
nation.

WorldCat locates only the copy in the Chilean National Library; no copy traced via
COPAC, CCILA, or METABASE; there is no OPAC at the Biblioteca Nacional de Guatemala to
be searched.

 Irregular inner margin. Light to quite noticeable
waterstain running longitudinally top to bottom in one half of the leaf. Lower outer corner
damaged with loss of paper due to exposure to moisture away from text.
(30886)

 First American edition of the brothers Robertson's wonderful account of their travels in South America culminating in their arrival in Paraguay and an extended residence there. They also recount the efforts to emancipate the various South American regions from Spanish control, compare and contrast Portuguese and Spanish America, describe flora and fauna, discuss native populations, etc. The preliminary leaves of advertisements for other books from the same publishers have their own additional interest.

 American Imprints 52683; Sabin 71961. This edition not in Palau. Publisher's pebbled brown cloth bindings: black tape at top of one spine and onto the covers. Bindings show modest wear, publisher's paper spine labels slightly chipped; text blocks slightly skewed in bindings and light waterstaining in lower inner margins of vol. I. Exsocial club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. (28891)

 First American edition of the brothers Roberston's classic account of crazy Dr. Francia and the constant fear that pervaded daily life in Paraguay during his insane dictatorship. As the title makes clear, this is a sequel to the brothers' earlier work.

Binding: Publisher's dark red ribbon-embossed cloth of an abstract pattern on a textured (pebbled) background not found in Krupp's Bookcloth in England and America, 1823–50.

 American Imprints 58260; Sabin 71962. This edition not in Palau. Bindings as above: black tape at top of spines and onto the covers. Bindings show modest wear; publisher's paper spine labels slightly chipped and text blocks slightly skewed in bindings. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. (28890)

 Dona Manuela and Dona Inez de Ibarra y Chavez, daughters of Don Gabriel Ibarra and Dona Jeronima Chavez, have completed their novitiate year. Robles, the comendadora (i.e., head) of the convent of Santa Fe of the order of the Sisters of Santiago, certifies that they have completed this period of self examination and apprenticeship and she welcomes them into the order.

 Very good condition.Written in sepia ink in an interesting script with idiosyncratic spelling. (31211)

 During his exile and residence in Philadelphia Vicente Rocafuerte, a man prominent in the political affairs of Mexico and Ecuador, wrote these letters to explain to
Spanish America the American federalist system of government. The spur for writing was his having read Juan Egaña's “Del federalismo y de la anarquia” (Santiago de Chile: Imprenta nacional, Abril de 1823). In one letter he compares and contrasts article by article the U.S., Mexican, and Guatemalan constitutions.

Provenance: Alberto Pareño's copy with his initials on the spine of the book.

 Uncut copy. Bound in 20th-century blue buckram. A very good copy. (29298)

 First edition: Detailed information on the Spanish postal service, its routes, connections to other countries, costs, etc., written by a Spanish statesman, historian, and economist who led the service and helped standardize its functions. The Noticia de las monedas estrangeras, y de los precios, á que se pagan las postas dentro, y fuera de España and Precio de las postas regladas de Europa have sectional title-pages.

This has an elegant emblematic frontispiece and an engraved coat of arms on the title-page.

 Bishop Rodriguez of Guadalajara issues this pastoral letter to the nuns of his diocese and incorporates the royal decree mentioned in the title, in which the king counsels nuns to close their ears to the seditious talk of the century and close their eyes to similar writings. This is a reference to Enlgihtenment-era “enthusiasm,” i.e., “vain belief of private revelation.”

 Medina, Puebla, 839. Contemporary multi-colored wrappers of a sponged pattern, in shades of rose, blue, and green, with some purple and white. An unusual decorative paper wrapper. A clean, very good copy. (34775)

 First edition. Born in 1816 in the small town of Tizayuca in what is now the state of Hidalgo, Rodriguez Galvan is widely credited with beingthe initiator of the Romantic movement in Mexico. He wrote novels, poetry, plays, and was the editor of several periodicals, most especially Calendario de las Señoritas Mexicanas and Año Nuevo, El Recreo de las Familias. He died of yellow fever in Havana in 1842 at the age of 27 while en route to South
America on a diplomatic mission. A few of the poems in vol. I were penned inHavana before his death.

These volumes offer his “Composiciones líricas originales” in vol. I and “Composiciones dramáticas originales” in vol. II. The frontispiece is a fine lithographic portrait of Don Ignacio, in Romantic style of course; there is a liberal use of handsome tailpieces. The whole was compiled and edited by the author's brother Antonio.

This first edition is uncommon in our experience as dealers in Mexicana.

 The legendary feud between Bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza and the Society of Jesus was acrimonious, lengthy, and rich in legal filings. The main point of contention between the opposing parties was the failure of the Society to submit to the authority of the bishops and archbishop of Mexico, and this had a subchapter concerning the Jesuits' refusal to tithe to the ecclesiastical authorities.

There are two editions of this work: The other has only 131 leaves and contains a typographical error on the title-page (“lirro” for “libro”). In this edition the “Apendiz al Memorial. Aduertencias a quien lo huuiere leido,” pp. 242–78, is by Juan Antonio Jarque. The place of printing has long been a matter of conjecture because of the paucity of studies of typography and typographic norms in Mexico and Puebla in the 17th century. We admit to no scholarship on the topic of typefaces but do have extensive experience with the paper used in Mexico and Puebla in the 1650s and the watermark in this edition is that of paper widely used there.

Provenance: Bookseller's label of the Libreria de San Martin in Madrid.

 Beginning in 1838 The Federal Republic of Central America was torn apart by
civil wars pitting Liberals against Conservatives and the desires of the various states against the
central government, with constitutional issues at the heart of the controversy.

The Liberals installed Gen. Carlos Salazar in January, 1839, as provisional president of
Guatemala replacing Conservative Mariano Rivera Paz. This was during a brief period of peace
between the two factions. Here in a decree dated 20 March 1839 Salazar offers to act as
mediator for any effort at a lasting peace.

No copy traced via WorldCat, COPAC, CCILA, or METABASE; there is no OPAC at
the Biblioteca Nacional de Guatemala to be searched.


Irregular margins, tea-colored waterstain running longitudinally top to bottom in one half of the
leaf, date in faded old ink in top margin. A good+ copy.
(30885)

 Second edition (first was Mexico, 1664) of the standard biography of Father Basalenque (1577–1651), the Provincial of the Augustinians in Michoacan and the author of Arte de la lengua tarasca, the best colonial-era grammar of the Tarascan (Purépecha) language, and of Historia de la Provincia de San Nicolás de Tolentino de Michoacán, del Orden de N.P.S. Agustín, the respected history of his order in Michoacan. He was also an accomplished student of the Matlatltzinga language, leaving unpublished (until the 20th century) several manuscripts.

This work discusses his humility, obedience to the Agustinian rule and vows, and in part his work among the native population.

This second edition additionally contains Lucas Centeno's compilation of the documents relating to the reinterment of Fr. Basalenque's remains in the Convento de Santa María de Gracia in Valladolid (now Morelia), Mexico.

 Weary from ten years of war, sacrifice, and then the politics of the nascent Peruvian republic, Gen. San Martin, liberator of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru, here
announces his retirement from public life. An Argentine by birth, San Martin's introduction to war happened not in America but in Europe where he was serving in the Spanish army against
England, Portugal, and finally France. After the peninsula fell to the French, he returned to America and fought with and soon led one of the main rebel armies.

The struggle lasted more than a decade, but on 12 July 1821, he took Lima from the Royalists, saw Peru officially declared independent on the 28th, and was himself named “Protector of Peru” on 3 August. Just about a year later, on 22 September 1822, via this document, he resigned his position and retired permanently from public life and service.

“The presence of a lucky soldier . . . is feared by newly constituted states; [and] for my part, I am tired of hearing it said that I want to be the sovereign.”

“Peruvians: I leave you with an established national government; if you repose in it all of your confidence, count on triumph; if you don't, anarchy will devour you.”

And with that he left Peru, returned to Argentina briefly, then sailed to Europe where he lived in several cities, only once attempting to return to America, but always maintaining a keen interest in the fate of his native Argentina.

Searches of WorldCat, NUC, CCILA, COPAC, and the Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico locate two copies worldwide: one in the U.S., and one in Chile. There is a very old unverified report of a copy in the Biblioteca Nacional in Lima.

 Medina, Lima, 3704. Browning, age-toning, some crumpling and tattering. Small loss of paper along the wide bottom margin. No worming. Housed in a quarter red morocco clamshell box. (34159)

 This is thefirst and only edition of a well-written and footnoted biography of St. Teresa de Jesús. It seeks to rebut negative criticisms and actual charges of harboring vice that had been contained in some 18th-century peninsular publications.

Neither
Medina, nor Palau, nor Garritz, nor the cataloguer for the NUC Pre-1956
entry notes a plate as present. The engraved plate in
our copy, which is signed “Araoz M.o,” shows St. Teresa kneeling
in prayer in her garden. In the background are a lake or a river and a mountain.
Christ is seen off to the right, emerging from a stand of trees near the water.
In front of the saint are some flowers and other cultivated plants which are
being watered by an irrigation system fed by a well; two symbolic doves and
a yearning (or dedicated) heart also appear. Below the engraving is a quotation
from Ecclesiastes that the saint used in her writings.

The engraver was Manuel de Aráoz, one of the first students of the Mexican Academy of Painting, a noted engraver, and later subdirector of the Academy's department of engraving.

 This is the first and only edition of a well-written and footnoted biography of St. Teresa de Jesús. It seeks to rebut negative criticisms and actual charges of harboring vice that had been contained in some 18th-century peninsular publications.

 Medina, Mexico, 10812; Palau 293431; Garritz 1569. Removed from a nonce volume. Without the sometimes-seen plate, which is not mentioned by Medina or Garritz or Palau; it may be not all copies were issued with it or that it could be added at an additional cost. Fore-edges closely trimmed, touching or costing up to a few letters of some sidenotes. Very good copy. (34495)

 Sánchez Borda (1772–1817) was a Bogotá merchant. His copy book begins 20 September 1801 with a letter to his mother, Inés María de la Borda y Betancourt, telling of his grief upon receiving her letter announcing the death of his brother Francisco Antonio Sánchez de la Borda (1758–1801), a priest; and it ends with a note that on 15 February 1810 at 6:30 AM his son Ramón Policarpo was born. On the 256 intervening pages Sánchez B. has recorded hundreds of business dealings with suppliers and other merchants. He specialized in fine clothing but also dealt in gems (at least one diamond ring, many garnets), salt, books, cloth (silk, taffeta, etc.), and many, many other commodities.

The volume gives an excellent view of who his suppliers were, the terms on which he conducted business, the types of goods available in Colombia and most especially Bogotá, and the amount of travel that this one merchant engaged in while maintaining a store in the capital. Scattered here and there in the volume are individual accountings of monies owed to him and letters he wrote attempting to have bills paid.

There are alsoletters to family members, especially having to do with money being sent, loaned, or repaid; notations of the birth or death of a child, and general news. Curiously, there is no mention of political events.

 Bound in repurposed vellum over cardboards; remnants of leather ties. Written on different stocks of paper with some small variation in size; ink used varies over time from near black to very pale sepia. Sánchez Borda's hand is an easy one but when the ink is faint, or there is significant show-through of ink from the leaf's other side, some effort must be expended to read the text. This manuscript invites quite a variety of researches. (35474)

 Sánchez Valverde was the first writer born in Santo Domingo to publish a book. In fact he published several, but all agree his most important is his Idea del valor de la isla Española. In it he writes of the entire island of Hispaniola, both the Spanish portion and the French. He surveys the natural history, the crops, the people, the slaves, the climate, the topography, the hydrology, the ports, and the prospects.

Provenance: Ownership stamp of John Carter Brown on title-page; later in the John Carter Brown Library (bookplate); note at end “Collated with G.G. Church copy. July 31, 1912. dup.” Deaccessioned 2008.

Evidence of readership: Scattered marginalia in French through p. 50, almost invariably giving the French for obscure words and phrases in Spanish in the text. Perhaps owned by someone living in the Haitian area of the island?

 After consecration and service in Spain, Sancho de Santa Justa arrived in Manila in 1767 to take up his duties as archbishop, which includedoverseeing the expulsion of the Jesuits. He was a native of Aragon and a member of the Society of Scholarum Piarum. In this address on the occasion of Charles III's 67th birthday, he expresses himself no friend of many of the Enlightment's ideas but a staunch supporter of the King, his economic policies, and especially of the newly instituted practice of free commerce in the Spanish empire. On the other hand, he rails against England, its foreign commercial practices, and its ascension as a maritime powerhouse.

The work is printed on “rice paper” (i.e., Asian paper probably from the mulberry tree) as was common in Manila during the period to ca. 1820. The typography is definitely provincial and plain, using only one decorative woodcut initial and no ornamentation on the title-page. The type is roman in a variety of sizes with a practice of using all capitals for emphasis.

The press on which this work was printed had been that of the Jesuits until Archbishop Sancho de Santa Justa carried out the king's order and expelled them; he then appropriated the press for his private use, as here. What had been only the fourth press to operate in the Islands, now with a new name, became the fifth.

Searches of NUC, WorldCat, and COPAC locate only five copies worldwide (three in the U.S., one in the U.K., one in Spain).

 Medina, Manila, 317; Retana, Aparato bibliográfico, 379. Recent marbled paper–covered boards (green and mauve stone pattern); red leather label on front cover. A few minor paper repairs to edges of a few leaves; a very few small pinhole type wormholes, not costing any letters; the brown spotting and staining peculiar to rice paper. Old, brief note lightly red-inked to title-page. Over all a very good copy. (33130)

 The author was a “fisico honorario de Cámara de S. M., consultor y mayor de los exércitos nacionales.” His work treats of hydrocele and other diseases of the testes, including testicular neoplasms, and recounts the three-year suffering of one patient, Jose Palacios; he reports, in detail, on the various consulting doctors that Palacios saw and on their treatment methods until a successful one was found. The work ends (pp. 35–39) with “Versos que hizo D. José Palacios para manifestar su gratitud á los dignos profesores.”

The patient and the doctors were all resident in Mexico City.

The online cataloguing of this book is an amazing example of copy-cataloguing from an initial poor record. The cataloguer of that initial record misunderstood the Medina entry and thought that Medina's “port.” meant “portrait,” when in fact it means “title-page”; that cataloguer then recorded that library's copy as “lacking the portrait.” And the error was perpetuated again, and again, and again by five of the ten Anglo-American libraries reporting ownership.

 One has here the standard and well-thought-of account of the Sanctuary of Jesus Christ at Chalma, the second most visited pilgrimage site in Mexico. The cave housing the Christ Crucified statue was a pre-Columbian sacred site and pilgrimage destination; miraculously the pre-Columbian statue with magical healing power morphed into the Christ image soon after it was visited by early Augustinian friars, who took over the cave and the surrounding area and build a church and religious compound. The original Christ statue was destroyed by fire in the 18th century.

In addition to the wealth of information here about the origins of the cave as a site of miracles, its history throughout the colonial period, and accounts of miracles occurring there, this work also has importantbiographies of Augustinians of the 17th century who played important roles in the care and perpetuation of the site.

The engraving shows the cave, the Christ figure, pilgrims, and Augustinian friars.

Dolce was a Venetian humanist and prolific author, translator, and editor. He worked for Gabriele Giolito de' Ferrari's press and had his hand in upwards of 96 works from that considerable printing enterprise. Why this work came from the Sessa press we do not know.

The volume is printed in italic with a spare use of woodcut headpieces and initials in the preliminaries, first leaf of text, and at the beginning of each play; the Sessa non-cat printer's device adorns the title-page. There is an error state on the last leaf (“Gli errori delle stampe si rimettono al giudicio di chi legge”).

 Schweiger, II, 946; Graesse, VI, 361; Edit16 CNCE 29883. Not in Adams. Early vellum over light paste boards, endpapers foxed; evidence of ties, later inked title on spine. Lower blank margin of title-leaf torn away and repaired with a lighter paper; one short tear on another page repaired. Light waterstaining in lower outer corners and sometimes slenderly across top margins; two small, pin-type wormholes in upper inner margins of leaves at back of volume. Final blank leaf present; all edges carmine with a little bleed-in to some margins. Overall a clean, solid, decent copy. (33383)

 “Polymath” is the term most often applied to Siguenza y Gongora (1645–1700), and indeed he was a cosmographer, philosopher, chronicler, poet, biographer, historian, cartographer, and priest.

Here he is wearing the hats of a chronicler and a biographer, as he, “an intellectual friend of Sor Juana [Ines de la Cruz] and at the same time a man of science and religiosity, [writes] the history of the convent of Jesus Maria and the biography of some of its notable nuns.” His Parayso occidental is “a classic example of baroque[-era] writing on the monastic life of nuns [in Mexico]” (both quotations from Lavrin, p. 205). As such, the volume is important; and even apart from its association with the Spanish world's Tenth Muse,” it isa basic starting place for the study of nuns, the economics of nunneries, and the political life of the same.

As is increasingly the case with Mexican imprints of the 17th century, it islittle found in the marketplace.

Provenance: 18th-century ownership signature on title-page and first leaf of preliminaries of the Conde del Fresno de la Fuente.

 Medina, Mexico, 1328; Palau 312973; Asuncion Lavrin, “Cotidianidad y espiritualidad en la vida conventual novohispana: Siglo XVII,” in Memoria del Coloquio Internacional Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz y pensamiento novohispano (1995). Late 19th-century Mexican quarter dark green morocco with mottled green paper sides; binding rubbed and abraded. Pencilling on front fly-leaf and title-page verso; top margins closely cropped occasionally costing top of letters of running heads and foliation. Worming, chiefly in margins but occasionally into the text, not costing words, sometimes repaired; first and last few leaves with old repairs to corners and margins and a bit of text restored in pen and ink. Withal, a good++ copy of important work that is not often on the market. (34203)

 The complex title-page text here is printed within a border of type ornaments; the text of the oratorio as sung in the Barcelona school festival noted is presented within its own border of printers' ornaments and printed partially in double-column format. One large, beautiful, two-thirds of a page woodcut of St. Thomas Aquinas faces the first page within a triple border of ornaments that fills the page. The printing here is crisp and lovely; the performances took place in a Barcelona escuela.

 This pastoral letter is unusual in that the head of the Discalced Carmelites of Spain sends it to only the nuns of his province. He surveys “perfection” as an ideal and aim for all, especially the Brides of Christ.

It is also rare: This item isnot in NUC or WorldCat, and has only one holding in the CCPB.

 Not in Palau. Removed from a volume of pamphlets and now in later marbled paper wrappers; light age-toning. (36686)

 Antonio de Solis was a dramatist and historian whose Historia de la conquista de México, población y progresos de la América septentrional, conocida por el nombre de Nueva España remains a prose classic.He is known to have written only ten plays: Eight are present here.